Sound Devices CL-12 Alaia

Saturday 07 November, 2015

An Amish craftsman joins Sound Devices to offer to 688 users this powerful and aesthetic control surface.

Sound Devices, who likes to multiply numbers by combining them in all ways, offers the 688 (which can be considered as a recorder or as an audio mixer), a new control surface inspired by the CL-9, designed for its part, for the 788T recorder.

The Sound Devices CL-12 mainly comes, for the sound cart, as the single 688 comes for the shoulder, adding 12 linear faders, for controling and mixing of the 12 mic and line inputs of the 688 (these faders are Penny & Giles 100 mm on the CL-12 Alaia), a 3-band parametric equalizer for each mic and line input, and many illuminated buttons for activation and setting, used to control almost all 688 functions.

The CL-12 attaches directly to the 688 via a single USB B-A cable that provides both power and control, and thus doesn't need independent power supply. Even though it has low power consumption (90 mA at 5 V DC), a micro-USB B port can however provide a 5V DC additional power supply allowing connection to a second USB A port of a QWERTY keyboard that would be particularly high power consuming, and the connection of a lighting lamp to a third USB A port. On the rear panel, a 6.35 mm jack socket enables the shifting of the 688 headphone output on the two headphone outputs, coupled 6.35 and 3.5 mm sockets, on the front panel of the CL-12.

Ergonomics and build quality have changed significantly compared to the CL-9. In a stronger metal structure, with the same graphite black paint as Sound Devices audio mixers, the different sections of the control surface are wisely organized:

A particularly comprehensive section of six pushbuttons gives access to the metadata completion of a take.

The Quick Access section has three customizable items according to user wishes. These buttons can notably be assigned to transport functions, Play, Rewind, Forward, or to file access functions. An access button to timecode functions and an access button to SL-6 menu, if connected to 688, complete this section.

Then there is a particularly comprehensive section for returns and communication, and a rapid access section to Meters and Menu functions of the 688.

Last, the serrated rotary encoder for headphones output level allows validating some actions at the touch.

In the 688 menu, a CL-12 sub-menu allows configuring the mixer according to its use.

The color display on the LCD screen of the 688 of Parametric EQ input is really effective and practical, even if one must sometimes be careful with radical corrections in a sound recording through headphones.

The CL-12 is thus a particularly comprehensive control surface, despite this strange absence of monitoring and file access functions in the transport section, as on the CL-9.

If the wooden side panels are aesthetical frills (not well finished as for sanding and varnish despite the Amish hand woodcrafting), as of the Zaxcom Oasis or Deva 32, the rest of the CL-12 draws confidence in the strength and quality of the components. However we may regret that, as on many linear mixers, the stops, down and up faders, are not acoustically amortized. Moreover, there is nothing to block the levels of output potentiometers (but they can be disabled in the CL-12 sub-menu).

The set Sound Devices 688 + CL-12 proves to be a wise choice, practical and efficient, for television or film fiction, with the ability to mix six mic inputs, with Sound Devices quality, and six line inputs (eg for twin receivers Wisycom MCR-42) to sixteen tracks. The efficient and intuitive ergonomics, easily implemented, which made the well-known reputation of Sound Devices, is here remarkable. In addition, the almost imperceptible fader latency allows responsive and accurate mixing.

For now only compatible with the 688, the engraving of the USB port connection, marked "To 6-Series Mixer" on the back of the CL-12, would suggest that, in the near future, it could be compatible with 664 or even 633.

Note that the term Alaia on the CL-12 doesn't come from the name of the renowned French-Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaïa, let alone from the Hebrew term Aliya which designates the return to the Holy Land (literally "ascent"), but comes from the name of a traditional Hawaiian surfboard, pre-twentieth century.

Sound Devices CL-12 Alaia is already available for rent at DC Audiovisuel, with or without 688.

+33 1 44 37 93 00

Rental rates are displayed on a daily basis excluding of tax, excluding of insurance, unless customized terms and do not take into account flat rates. One week rate is four times a day. Post-production and Services rates are per hour respectively divided by quarter and by half an hour.